http://ozreport.com/2.221

http://ozreport.com/2.219

http://ozreport.com/2.217

The very first paragraph of the Working Draft of the USHPA Competition Manual and Rulebook makes it very clear what the focus of the Workgroup is and what they want from the Competition program. Here it is:

The USHPA recognizes the many benefits of hang gliding and paragliding competitions in the United States. These include community and public relations, site retention, marketing our sports, camaraderie among pilots as well as a means to select a US Team to compete internationally.

So while previously the major focus (actually at one point the only focus) of the NTSS ranking system, was to choose a US National team that could compete at the Worlds, this document's proposal will almost completely gut that focus. It will do so in a manner that is often blatant, but at times very obscure.

The Competition Workgroup wants to harness competitions to promote other goals of the USHPA. They want to use the competition pilots to promote those goals. The assumption here is that competitions will go on and that they can be used for other means without upsetting the apple cart.

What is missing is a focus on the pilots and what makes the pilots come to the meets and want to compete. Notice that the first three benefits have nothing to do with the actual pilots at the actual meets. This lack of focus on the pilots themselves has and will have very serious consequences for competition.

For example, site choice. The King Mountain Nationals would not be the first choice of many competition pilots, and many "top" competition pilots have already said that they are not going to compete at the King Mountain Nationals. King Mountain seems to have been chosen for the first three reasons (or the hope that these benefits will be realized), and not because it is the best place to help select a US National Team.

Now, the choice of going to Big Spring for the Nationals provides an excellent choice for the desires of the pilots (as we have seen from pilot comments, the choice of it for the 2007 Worlds, and pilot attendance). In addition, as an extra benefit, it fulfils the other criteria listed here. We get to keep using the Big Spring airport because we have great relations with the community, for example.

So the first paragraph sets the tone for a document that essentially guts the current competition system and turns it on its head.

I have a number of suggestions for what we can do now to address the problems that the Workgroup have addressed. I don't want to just be a critic. I want to give us a quick and relatively easy way to make some changes for the short term and a way to make longer term changes. I will present these soon.